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Mios are very cute, I love how translucent they are too! In regards to the Chinese mantis, if it helps I had one lady who like to try to bite people and I can say it didn`t hurt at all. It was far more funny then harmful in any way. At one point I had some 40 adult Chinese mantises and they...

Sorry to hear about Barry. These little guys do so creep into your hearts and are gone all too soon. Just food for thought for the next time you are looking to shop for mantises. If you like small mantises that are easy to care for Miomantis paykullii are a good choice. They only get about 1.5...

Great collection and some beautiful spiders. Tarantulas both fascinate me and repel me. They are gorgeous creatures but just knowing those all to visible fangs are hiding beneath that fuzzy face makes me shudder a bit. I really wish spiders were not illegal here in Iceland as I would have loved...

So cute, so bitty :D

The cocofibre "fabric" is a wonderful idea! I'm going to have to try that as well. Another option is cork board like the stuff bulletin boards are made of. I know in Canada I could buy squares of it at the dollarstore in the craft section. I've used that in a few smaller setups and it seems to...

Congratz on the babies! I am so jealous, those are my the two species I have been trying to get my hands on for over a year now. I have purchased 3 ghosts ooths and none have hatched and spiny ooths never seem to be available when I'm buying.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that demands pictures...

I purchased a macro lens like this a while back and I LOVE IT. it takes great pictures, the only draw back is that you have to get super close to the subject which means there is a lot of your model jumping onto the lens then minor panic while you try to figure out where the little rascal has...

Glue guns are always your first go to for anything mantis related but if you are worried about the heat alternatively you can take a pin and carefully pierce the very end of the ooth and use that to secure it to the lid. I did this with my last batch of ooths and had no issues. 

From my experience keeping my own cultures going for around 2 years now from my first starter culture I would say mold is never a good thing. That would be the reason most commercially available fruit fly medium mixtures have some manner of anti mold something in them. If you are making homemade...

Just an update on this. My aphid colony seems to have all died off, no idea why as I gave them new plants and had 100s of them to start off with. HOWEVER the pet store finally had fruit flies in stock and even though they cost me somewhere around 20 dollars a culture I am over the moon with...

Having recently moved to Iceland, a land seriously devoid of insects, I have had no luck at all getting fruit flies from any source. As luck had it however the lettuce growing in the tiny garden at my new place was infested with green aphids. The mantises all seem happy to eat them so I figured...

Ants. Just something about them and their swarming that gives me the willies. They are neat and all but I just can't. Might have something to do with the wars I had with them every summer as they tried to take over my kitchen. Crickets are a close second just because They are horrid escaping...

Unfortunately this Canadian just moved to Iceland so you guys are down one :P I'll still visit and certainly bring ooths with me for my fellow Canadians if my breeding goes well and there is interest. As for the flies the breeding defiantly slows down over the winter but for me at least at...

I have been unable to find any suppliers in Canada either :( If you want to breed flies I would recommend black soldier flies over any blow flies as they can be breed indoors with minimal smell. I have a guide on that here on the forum if you are interested in checking that out. ...

As others have said this seems to be a rumor started about black death that was due to the poor conditions the crickets were kept in (or crickets in general depending on species and how apt they are to have the virus). I have been using carrots for my meal worms, phoenix worms, and crickets with...

Beautiful enclosure, I love living vivariums so much. Lets hope its future inhabitant makes proper use of it instead of only ever hanging from the mesh top like a little mantis jerk :P  

I am so sorry for your loss, I had a similar outbreak in my ranks this year. I still have no idea what caused it as it only took out my Chinese mantises one by one and left my Mios and Thistles completely fine. I lost 10 or so Chinese one by one no matter what I did to some manner of what I can...

I had an ant beat up one of my nymphs and steal his fruit fly from him once. Haven't used them since. Ants are tiny badasses and can potentially hurt your mantis. I would not use them. As for isopods they should be fine but most mantises won't touch them. Not sure if they taste bad or what but...

Contgratz on the tiny Cutie! Nothing better then sticky gecko feets!

As far as I know coconut fibre isn't going to cut it for soil for any plant other then an air plant. There is no nutrients in the cocofibre at all I do believe? I know my first few attempts to plant in cocofibre ended in dead plants. That said if you do some searching you can find organic soils...